I’ve been meaning to blog about this for many days, but have not found the time.

The Rudd government is planning (and already doing trials) for an internet blacklist. A mandatory filter, at ISP levels, that will censor whatever the government damn well thinks is illegal or harmful to children.

They had also tried to sell this plan with an option to ‘opt-out’ of this blacklist.

There are two sets of blacklists. One that blocks content that would be deemed harmful to children, and the other, the one you can’t opt-out of, blocks content deemed illegal by the government.

ISPs are up in arms about this, not only because of cost, but it would also severely cripple our internet speeds.

Tax-payers should bloody well be up in arms, too. This filter is currently looking to cost $125.8 million to implement!

Once set up, this filter is out of the hands of Joe Citizen, the government will then be able to add sites to the blacklist. This is in a similar fashion to the Chinese firewall, that has basically further oppressed it’s people.

What does this all mean?

Drugs are illegal - therefore, no school research, no research for a drug user to check up on some facts to avoid overdosing, and it has the potential to accidently block drug awareness and help websites.

And dissidence? Well, that would be considered illegal in the eyes of the internet filter. It will all start with extremist sites, then it will lead to anything that remotely goes against government policy.

Euthanasia will no longer be something we can read about, too.

P2P networks? Nope.

Violent games? May be on the agenda.

Buying exported video games that are refused classification, what will happen then?

If I suddenly post ALLAH AKBAR! Will this site be blocked to Australians? Or any other forum? Will we be pushed to censoring ourselves so that our favourite message boards suddenly don’t appear anymore?

Stephen Conroy - you’re a fucking wanker.

Alright, I’m not one to spam links, but browsing the awesome PCPP forums I came across a thread about conspiracies.

Now, as far as ways of thinking, I’m pretty out there - I have some unusual views of the world and I relish researching into conspiracies to pick out the truth behind them, if there is indeed any.

Do yourself a favour and check out, Zeitgeist - The Movie. To be fair, it’s long at just a little over 2 hours. But this movie really draws you in like you wouldn’t believe!

Part 1: The myths of religion - very interesting, and it expanded my knowledge of what I already knew of modern organised religions.

Part 2: 9/11. If you’re an American, be warned, and prepared to have what you know about these events challenged. Keep in mind that the world is indeed a scary place, and what you hope to be true may be a farce.

Part 3: International banks. This one is by far a clincher… Sure, at times it doesn’t seem plausible, but when you sit there and think about the state of the world and it’s financing then wow - mind blowing!

Part 3 was what really hit a nerve with me. Why? Keep in mind that Australians owe $44 billion in credit card debt alone, and you will see…

Don’t write off this excellent documentary, keep your mind open, think and be prepared for a rude awakening…

War, I believe, is a human condition. We amass armies and kill for money, resources, religion and politics.

Some wars are justifiable, but they still remain senseless.

We have the ongoing bloodshed between Israel and Palestine. Continued fighting in Afghanistan, 7 years after invasion. We saw a highly illegal war begin in Iraq.

Yes, Saddam was a tyrant and a killer, but the invasion of Iraq was based on lies. It is now freely admitted that the intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction (a key basis for invasion) was taken from the 1990’s, when yes, Saddam and the Baath party did possess WMDs. But the first Gulf War not only obliterated the Iraqi army, but it also removed Saddam Hussein as a global risk.

More so, it has also been stated by the Bush administration that the Al’Qaeda links Saddam supposedly had were not at all true.

On the topic of Saddam’s WMDs - in the 1980’s, pesticides were supplied to Iraq by Germany, France helped Iraq build it’s nuclear program, and the United States sold anthrax bacteria to Iraq. These governments supported Iraq against Iran, and actively supplied Saddam with the means to eradicate the Iranian threat.

Now we have the Georgia/Russia conflict, apparently brewing since the split of the Soviet Union. And how do world leaders react? With bias and harsh words.

Putin must be laughing his arse off at George W Bush’s stance, that violence and aggression are intolerable and not the way to handle things… Yeah. Good one, Georgie boy. Did you show the Iraqi people any mercy by bombing the absolute crap out of Baghdad? And just how much diplomacy did you exercise before launching your invasion?

I’ve been reading so many news reports on the conflict between Georgia and Russia, and the bias shown by the Western media is disgusting. Why is Georgia so innocent? Because they’re a democracy? Because they have US support?

I’m not taking sides on this one, don’t get me wrong.

The conflict is so convoluted, the truth being twisted by the media and both sides of the conflict. But you know, I don’t believe Georgia is all that innocent.

A lot of the population of South Ossetia are, technically, Russian citizens. South Ossetia and Abkhazia want to be part of the Russian Federation. In Russia’s eyes, Georgia has attacked their populous so they have responded with military action.

It’s not as simple as that (when is it?), but I think that it is quite hypocritical of the US to sit there and berate the Russian government when their actions have also been suspect.

So… I thought John Howard was bad, I thought he was running this country into the ground (which he was, let’s face it - privatising Telstra, one of our greatest commodities, the free trade agreement with the USA, the war with Iraq and so forth)… Then comes along plucky Kevin Rudd. I thought, “great! New leadership and better broadband!”

But then he comes out swinging with this “alcopop” tax hike of, wait for it, 70%. Apparently this is to curb our nation’s love of binge drinking…

You know, I agree, binge drinking is a problem - especially among twenty-somethings, and even to a point, the under-aged. But honestly, this smells like a revenue scheme, Mr. Rudd.

Senators are starting to err and umm at passing this tax hike as legislation, and the majority of people (according to Ninemsn’s new poll) are saying no. This is a band aid solution, among other things, and it will only get younger people to either mix their own (stronger) drinks, or find alternatives. (i.e. party drugs)

One crazy senator is even mentioning a volumetric tax… WTF? Taxing based on alcohol content? You must be kidding, surely!

Drinking is expensive as is, if you really want to stop problem drinking, then use tax money to fund health programs.

Browsing AusGamers as I usually do every day or so, I came across this article.

Now, seriously. Has someone polluted the government’s drinking water with some kind of psychoactive chemical? Are these politicians in their right minds? Who the hell, in a democracy, would filter the internet and ban websites?

So you say, “it’s not so bad, surely only illegal things will be banned.” Wrong. Not only has the government kept its list secret, but it has previously stated that the filter would deny access to R, X and Refused Classification websites.

Amnesty International is currently running a campaign against, what it calls, the Great Firewall of China. This firewall is much like the one that the current Australian government is seeking. Simply, this is an infringement of our human rights, and freedom of speech.

For the full details, check out the Electronic Frontiers Australia website - it goes into more detail about the proposed filtering, and has links to take action.

And no. This isn’t about porn. =P

Once again, Grand Theft Auto has evoked controversy. But this time, it would seem, that it is also provoking thought.

There’s an article in The Australian that goes on to quote some statistics, and gives voice to the fact that if we had an R rating, young kids wouldn’t be playing GTA IV.

The more publicity, the better. An R18+ rating will only help keep kids away from extremely violent, obscene or sexual games.

As for those who say video games are for kids, well, the article in The Australian points out that the average gamer is 28.

I was reading an article the other day about the issue of an R18+ rating for video games here in Australia.

It’s interesting to note that the talks are going to be held in South Australia, interestingly because that’s where the R18+ train hit a blockade.

Some years ago (not that long ago, but I can’t remember when) there was a vote among the Attorneys-General of each state and territory to decide upon whether to implement an R18+ rating for video games. For some reason (i.e. bureaucratic bullshit) there needed to be a unanimous vote. And do you know who voted against? South Australia.

Now they’re taking this debate to the public (apparently - how many of them will be special interest groups?), to see whether as a nation we want an adult rating for video games. I for one say, “fuck yes, let me play mature, gritty games, let me censor what I feel I shouldn’t be viewing, give me the power to be the adult that I am”.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, and I for one, hope it leans towards the majority of gamers, the 20-somethings.